Four Common Threats to Your Wooden Fittings

*Remunerated Post*

Exposed wooden fittings and furniture are a popular choice in many homes for a very good reason. No material is quite as traditional, warm, and welcoming, as the produce of a good timber farm. It has been a part of our culture for so long, it is almost impossible to think of a period of time when it wasn’t a crucial part of our interior décor lives.

However, this aesthetic and style can come at a very serious cost. Wood’s vulnerabilities are why practices like damp proofing, termite extermination, and many other arrangements are so very important.

If you are going to be using exposed wood regularly throughout your property, on the floorboards, in the wall panelling, or anywhere else be aware of the following five potential vectors for damage, and how best to deal with them.

Stalwart Sunlight

Although most modern wood treatment will have a high enough reflective index to deal with the vast majority of the UV radiation the sun churns out daily, sunlight damage is still very much a real potential problem.

This is especially true when it comes to antique items or properties, where re-varnishing is not an option, but the wood itself is more vulnerable and exposed. Some more exotic woods will darken as certain chemical elements in their make up oxidise.

This would happen naturally over time, but sunlight acts as a powerful catalyst. Where possible, place antique items in the shade, or behind UV coated glass.

Abrasive Assault  

Furniture gets repositioned, rearranged, reoriented, or otherwise moved about on a regular basis in some households. If you have exposed floorboards underneath, this can cause serious issues of scratches, friction damage, or other abrasions that could leave the kind of markings that seriously harm your floorboard’s aesthetic value.

To keep it as safe as possible, there are some techniques to consider. Many furniture manufactures offer fabric pads to place on the base of the legs/feet of their products, and if you need to move items around on caster-mounted platforms, be sure to use rubber wheels. If you need to resaw at any time then it is a good idea to check a guide on bansaws. 

Also, keep up to date on sweeping and vacuuming as much as you can. Tracked in sand and dirt can be a dangerous source of scratching when it gets between your guest’s shoe soles and your floor.

Insect Invasion

Woodworm and Termites are well known pests when it comes to anyone who wants to make as much of their home from arboreal bounty as possible. Tiny holes in the wood work accompanied by small amounts of sawdust on the ground near woodworm exit holes, these are the signs you should be aware of.

It is important not to become too oversensitive about these kinds of symptoms however, as many antique items will have woodworm holes in them from decades earlier, or even centuries ago in some instances. Deploying treatments in that instance would be closing the door long after the horse has bolted.

Also, it is important to remember that holes are the exit means of the insect in question. They only burrow in wood during their larval stages. Once they are out, they won’t be infesting any more. If you suspect anything, get an expert to look in closer. They can help you be absolutely sure.

Weathering Water

Most modern woodwork is sufficiently waterproofed that the occasional bout of condensation or one or two spillages isn’t going to be an issue. Antique items might be more of a concern, but generally things are studier than we give them credit for when it comes to occasional damage.

However, persistent moisture has the potential to be seriously damaging to wooden items or fittings and unless you address the water problem, it also presents the ideal environment for any number of different moulds to grow and develop.

There are many funguses that feed on the cellulose molecules that make up much of the plant cell walls present in wood. This is what gives wood its characteristic strength and power, the very element that makes it ideal as a building material. It is exactly this which funguses like wet rot and dry rot attack. If you see water regularly settling on the same wooden surface, isolate the cause, investigate, and potentially call in the experts to deal with this more definitively.

Wood is a wonderful material. Versatile, resilient, aesthetically pleasing, and above all very strong. Despite this however, its organic nature means it has very specific vulnerabilities that need to be considered when you want to deploy it throughout your home at length. A little care and some extra understanding can go a long way though. With a watchful eye and some common sense, your wood will stay wonderful for a long time yet.

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